In the uncanny world of Yuichi Hirako, the relationship between humans, nature, and the built environment plays out in vibrant color and unique proportions. The Tokyo-based artist creates large-scale sculptures, paintings, and installations that explore coexistence, often through compositions that appear crowded with domestic objects, food, cats, and figures whose faces are obscured by cartoonish head coverings shaped like trees or antlers.
ORIGIN, Hirako’s expansive solo exhibition at the Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art, invites us to enter a surreal, almost Alice in Wonderland-like realm. From salon-style hangings of numerous paintings and sculptures along an undulating plywood surface to a giant quadriptych—a four-part canvas—the artist’s pieces play with perception and urge us toward curiosity.
Recurring, anonymous characters populate Hirako’s otherworldly settings. In one work, a huge table is laden with a feast, featuring bowls of fruit, bakery items, and possibly still-living sea creatures, along with a number of relaxed cats, stacks of books, and floral arrangements. And a giant bookcase is arranged with potted plants, books, figurines, flowers, and more—objects that in some cases defy the structure of the unit, like a potted tree or shrub that grows up behind the shelves.
ORIGIN spans the indoor galleries, courtyard, and plaza of the museum and is presented as part of the Setouchi Triennale. The show continues through November 9 in Okayama City. Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.
